Campaign finance documents uncovered by The Wall Street Journal indicate that Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat with close ties to the Clinton family, gave or directed over $675,000 to the campaign of the wife of the FBI official who would oversee Hillary Clinton’s email case.

The revelations have sparked controversy, with many pundits saying that the massive donations could constitute a conflict of interest — or even a bribe.

According to The Wall Street Journal report, McAuliffe’s political action committee, Common Good VA, donated $467,500 to the state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, wife of Andrew McCabe. McCabe would later become deputy director of the FBI and have significant oversight in the Clinton email case.

The Virginia Democratic Party then gave $207,788 to Jill McCabe. While that may seem unrelated, The Wall Street Journal pointed out — in what may be the understatement of the new century — that “Mr. McAuliffe exerts considerable control” over the Virginia Democrat Party. In fact, the state party operates as a de facto arm of McAuliffe, Inc. — and therefore, by extension, an arm of the Clinton machine.

All this adds up to over $675,000, more than a third of Jill McCabe’s fundraising haul. And after all that, she still lost to incumbent Dick Black.

A McAuliffe spokesman said the governor “supported Jill McCabe because he believed she would be a good state senator. This is a customary practice for Virginia governors … Any insinuation that his support was tied to anything other than his desire to elect candidates who would help pass his agenda is ridiculous.”

The FBI also said that Andrew McCabe “played no role, attended no events, and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind. Months after the completion of her campaign, then-Associate Deputy Director McCabe was promoted to Deputy, where, in that position, he assumed for the first time, an oversight role in the investigation into Secretary Clinton’s emails.”

However, this raises a series of questions. Given that one of Clinton’s closest allies gave over half a million dollars to his wife’s campaign, why was Andrew McCabe given an oversight role in the Clinton email investigation?

After all, there is no other elected official in America more tied up with the Clintons than Terry McAuliffe. If the Obama administration was interested in an impartial investigation in both appearance and fact, isn’t McCabe’s involvement a prima facie conflict of interest?

At the very least, this reveals the shoddy handling of the Clinton investigation by the Obama administration’s FBI. At the worst, it reveals something a lot more sinister.